The present invention relates to electrical interconnection of adjacent electrical devices and, in particular, to electrical interconnection of light-emitting fibers and a method for interconnecting light-emitting fibers.
It has long been desired that electronic displays be made with larger screen sizes and also be very thin, ultimately reaching a configuration that may be hung on a wall. Inherent physical limitations preclude conventional cathode ray tubes, such as the color picture tubes and display tubes utilized in televisions, computer displays, monitors and the like, from achieving such desired result. While plasma displays have been proposed to satisfy such desire, the large glass vacuum envelope they require is difficult to manufacture and thus is expensive, which is not desirable.
The entire display screen of such plasma devices must be fabricated as a single piece and must reproduce many thousands of pixels. Any significant defect that results in faulty pixels or in a non-uniform brightness across the screen, even if confined to a relatively small area, renders the entire screen defective. Such defects cannot be tested or detected until the entire screen is processed, and are either not susceptible of repair or are very expensive to repair, thereby substantially reducing the yield and increasing the cost of each satisfactory plasma display.
One attractive approach for producing a large, thin display screen is to provide an array of a large number of adjacent light-emitting fibers. An advantage of such light-emitting fiber display is that each fiber is relatively inexpensive and may be separately tested before assembly into a display. Because defective fibers are detected and discarded before assembly into a display, the yield of a display which is made from known good light-emitting fibers is increased and the cost thereof is reduced. One such fiber display is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,274,978 entitled xe2x80x9cFIBER-BASED FLAT PANEL DISPLAYxe2x80x9d (U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/418,454 filed Oct. 15, 1999).
With regard to such fiber-based displays, it is desirable that the light-emitting fibers therefor be interconnected reliably and inexpensively, e.g., in a way that provides suitable performance, facilitates assembly of fibers into a display, and/or reduces cost. This is particularly of interest regarding the interconnections to conductors that are disposed transversely with respect to the side-by-side light-emitting fibers.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved interconnection for light-emitting fibers.
To this end, the interconnection of the present invention comprises a plurality of electrical devices each having an edge surface having at least one exposed contact thereon, wherein the plural electrical devices are disposed side-by-side one another with the edge surfaces thereof residing substantially in a plane. At least one elongated electrical conductor is disposed substantially transverse to the edge surfaces of the electrical devices and on the respective edge surfaces thereof, wherein the at least one elongated conductor is in electrical connection with at least one of the exposed contacts on each of the plurality of electrical devices. An electrical circuit has at least one conductor proximal and substantially parallel to the at least one elongated conductor and connected thereto at a plurality of locations.
According to another aspect of the invention, an interconnection of plural light-emitting fibers comprises a plurality of lengths of a light-emitting fiber each having a plurality of light-emitting elements along a first surface thereof, each light-emitting element having at least one exposed contact; wherein the plural light-emitting fibers are disposed side-by-side one another. At least one elongated electrical conductor is disposed substantially transverse to the lengths of the light-emitting fibers and on the respective first surfaces thereof, wherein the at least one elongated conductor is in electrical connection with at least one of the exposed contacts on each of the plurality of light-emitting fibers.
Further, a method for interconnecting a plurality of electrical devices comprises:
placing in side-by-side array a plurality of electrical devices having an exposed contact disposed along respective first edge surfaces thereof, wherein the plurality of electrical devices are arrayed with the edge surfaces thereof and with the exposed contacts thereof in predetermined positional relationship;
depositing an elongated electrical conductor on the edge surfaces of the plurality of electrical devices to provide electrical connection between predetermined ones of the exposed contacts;
placing at least one conductor of an electrical circuit proximal and substantially parallel to the elongated electrical conductor; and
connecting the one conductor of the electrical circuit to the elongated electrical conductor at a plurality of locations.